buildingare

Buildingare is a term used in architectural and urban planning discussions as a proposed metric to quantify the horizontal footprint of a building on a site. In this usage, buildingare refers to the ground area occupied by the building's footprint, typically measured as the plan area bounded by the exterior walls at ground level, and reported in square meters or as a percentage of the parcel area. It is intended to complement existing measures such as floor area ratio (FAR) by focusing on land coverage rather than volume.

Origins and status: The term has no formal designation in planning codes or widely adopted standards. It has appeared in design studios, conceptual papers, and some planning discussions as a way to discuss site efficiency, shading, and open space. Because definitions vary, practitioners may distinguish between gross footprint (including overhangs that contact the ground) and net footprint (excluding cantilevered areas).

Applications and critique: Buildingare can be used to assess site coverage and to compare projects with the same FAR but different footprint configurations. Critics note that without standard definitions, the metric risks inconsistency and confusion with established measures such as site coverage or building envelope.

Relation to other metrics: Buildingare is sometimes presented alongside FAR, site coverage, and building envelope as part of a broader set of planning indicators.

Note: As of now, buildingare lacks formal adoption and remains a niche or exploratory term rather than a standard planning metric.